


not quite a fairytale, but I'll take it.

by mazeof3racha



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, a lot of this is me projecting my own college anxieties sorry, chenle is only mentioned, intentional lapslock, this is my first work uwu, title will probably change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-01-07 06:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazeof3racha/pseuds/mazeof3racha
Summary: to say hyunjin is freaking out would be an understatement. sure, his soulmate has written random little reminders, and meeting times on his arm or hand before, but never had it been his schedule for a class that hyunjin was fairly certain he was also in.





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all this is the first thing i've written in a really long time! pls enjoy! <3

jeongin sighs, looking down at the messily scrawled schedule written on his forearm, it had been a long day of classes and he still had one more, introduction to drawing. he’s not sure why he registered for this class, he can’t even draw! he just needed a creative arts credit for the general education requirements everyone had to meet before they graduated and thought it would be the best thing to take so he wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with academic work for his first semester.

  
jeongin is a music education major, concentrating on vocals. he would never need to draw in his life, not to mention the class met twice a week for a whole 2 and a half hours, which felt like an eternity compared to his other classes, which were generally only an hour long. he digresses though, it really doesn’t seem that bad. plus, he can only stand so much conservatory-style music for so long in a day.

  
he decides he has enough time to grab lunch before his class, and heads in the direction of the only dining hall on campus that he has ever eaten at, as it’s closest to the music building and he’s too anxious to go to any others alone. he pulls his sleeve down, over the schedule written on his arm, a habit he picked up after finding out that his soulmate, whoever that may be, would have the same thing written on their arm. he doesn’t want to deal with whatever that would cause if he were to find his soulmate right now, god forbid.

  
a lot of people make a big deal about the soulmate thing, but jeongin doesn’t find it so. obviously finding his soulmate wouldn’t be a bad thing, actually it seems pretty exciting, but he doesn’t want to waste time “searching” for them or anything. he wants it to come naturally, there was a reason that when he first got the ability to see what his soulmate wrote on their skin at 13 he didn’t meet them right away. plus, he’s kind of busy right now. he’s just started university and wants to focus on that. he just got into the best school in the country for music and arts and isn’t gonna let it go to waste.

  
when he gets to the dining hall he swipes his id card in and immediately goes to find the table he’s been sitting at since move in day to put his backpack down to save the seat. he gets on the cold food line to get a wrap, as he usually does for lunch. as he’s waiting on line here hears from behind him:  
“hey, jeongin!”, he startles and turns around, probably imitating the look of a deer caught in headlights. it was kim woojin, a senior in the same major as him. they had met at orientation the week prior, when woojin was paired with him and some other students to teach them about the what the major entails and give them a tour of the music building, he seemed nice and very put together next to jeongin, who was essentially a mess. he was with a shorter boy who looked the same age as him with curly bleach blonde hair. jeongin gave him a small smile and wave, hoping that that would be the extent of their interaction, he’s not in the mood for awkward small talk. but then the two boys start to walk up to him, and jeongin hopes that they’re just also getting something from the cold food line.  
“hey”, woojin says, again, when they reach him. “it’s nice to see you again!”

  
“hey”, jeongin replies, giving another small smile, “it’s nice to see you too.. how are you?” jeongin feels bad for being so stand-offish, but he doesn’t know woojin really well and can’t help but feel awkward about him being so nice.

  
“i’m good, thanks!”, woojin says then turns to look at the boy next to him, who is standing there a bit awkwardly, “oh! and this is chan, my boyfriend! chan, this is one of the freshman from my orientation group, jeongin!” chan looks at jeongin and smiles warmly at him, jeongin can’t help but smile back. a look of realization comes across chan’s face, and he crosses his arms and turns to woojin, smirking.

  
“is this the freshman that you said was _‘sooo cute’_ and that you want to _‘protect him and put him in your pocket’_?”, chan teased. jeongin flushed, no one had ever really called him cute before, besides his mother, but she was required to do that. woojin rolled his eyes at chan and shook his head.  
“you’re insufferable.”, he said, then turned to jeongin. “sorry about him. sometimes i swear i’m babysitting him, not dating him.” chan stuck his tongue out at woojin and then slips his arm around the taller’s waist. jeongin can’t help but smile at the two, they were a cute couple and it made jeongin feel better that some of the first people he’s met on campus also like boys, it made him feel safe.

  
“don’t worry about it, i’m just glad someone other than my mother thinks i’m cute.”, jeongin jokes. woojin and chan both laugh at that and jeongin beams. woojin then reaches out and pinches jeongin’s cheek. jeongin swats his hand away and turns around, he’s next in line. as he orders his food he swears he can hear woojin and chan chuckling. when he gets the wrap he ordered, he turns to say goodbye to the seniors.

  
“wait, jeongin, do you want to sit with us?”, woojin asks. jeongin stills, he hasn’t shared a meal with anyone since orientation, where it was kind of required socialization. he reluctantly nods.

  
“sure, i just need to get my bag from my table”, he says. woojin nods, and they wait in a comfortable silence while the two seniors got their food as well. jeongin leads them to the table where he had placed his bag down, woojin looks at him, almost worriedly.

  
“you sit here in this corner by yourself?”, he asks. jeongin shrugs, he never really thought of it like that. he just didn’t feel comfortable sitting in the middle of everything.

  
“most of the time, yeah, but sometimes my roommate joins me”, jeongin reasons. his roommate, zhong chenle, came all the way from china to study vocal performance. they get along well, despite his korean being a work in-progress, but chenle had been making his own friends and opting to hang out with them. which jeongin was fine with, he wasn’t gonna make the kid not hang out with people just because he hadn’t really made friends yet. woojin softly smiles at him.

  
“well, if you ever want to eat with someone, you have us”, he says. jeongin just nods and lets them lead him to the table they’re sitting at.  
they have a nice meal, and get to know each other a bit more. he learns that chan is a studio recording and music production double major, “it’s a miracle you’re even graduating on time, babe!”, he’s from australia, and he makes his own music on the side for fun with two friends. woojin tells him that he’s also in the choir that he’s in, as all music students required to be in at least one ensemble, and that he works in the cafe just off campus, “i could totally get you a discount!”. jeongin finds out that they’re soulmates, and have been in a relationship since a few months after they found out.

  
“you didn’t start dating immediately?”, jeongin asks, if you know you’re meant for each other, why wait? they both shake their heads.

  
“nah,”, chan starts. “we wanted to get to know each other first. we also considered that we could potentially be platonic soulmates.” jeongin nods, he’d never even considered that possibility. he had been so wrapped up in the idea of a possible romantic relationship, rather than a platonic one. though he is still in no rush to find his. the time will come. jeongin checks the time on his phone and his eyes widen comically large. he’s going to be late if he doesn’t leave right now. jeongin quickly thanks the seniors for eating with him, picks up his trash, and throws it in the garbage in his way out. he double checks the building he has to go to on the schedule and promptly heads in the direction of the building.

\-------------------

to say hyunjin is freaking out would be an understatement. sure, his soulmate has written random little reminders, and meeting times on his arm or hand before, but never had it been his schedule for a class that hyunjin was fairly certain he was also in. he swears no other school has that name for a building! he had been dreaming of meeting his soulmate since he was 13 and his marks started showing. he still remembers the first thing he’s ever seen his soulmate write like it was yesterday. messy scrawl that read ‘math textbook pg. 105, #’s 1-10’. his roommate, seungmin, almost snorted when hyunjin dreamily recalled the memory to him earlier that morning, not long after his freakout about the schedule written on his forearm.

  
“oh shut up, seungmin”, hyunjin says, pouting and flopping back onto his bed. “just because you already knew your soulmate doesn’t mean you get to make fun of my fantasies. i know they’re unrealistic, but let a guy dream!” seungmin and his soulmate, felix, who lived down the hall with the fourth member of their quartet, jisung, had met when they were young, through email. they were assigned as “pen pals” in elementary school to be able to communicate so seungmin could learn more english, and felix could learn about korean culture. they had hit it off immediately and continued messaging each other even after that school year was over, and when they were old enough to have cell phones, seungmin made him download kakao talk so they didn’t have to email anymore.

  
they found out they were soulmates just after they had both turned 13, felix wanted to wait the extra week so they could find out together, hopefully. as soon as seungmin had noticed the writing on his arm, that was most definitely felix’s, he video called him and felix cried. after that, they planned to go to the same college so they could finally meet in person. felix even learned korean! with the help of seungmin, of course. now, they’ve been together for almost a year and they’re thriving. hyunjin, the hopeless romantic that he is, loves their story and hopes to have a just as lovely one with his own soulmate. but considering the current situation, and how a good majority of how hyunjin’s life has gone so far, it might just be more awkward than anything.

  
“whatever”, seungmin says, putting his shoes on. “i have class soon, and so do you. so let’s go.” hyunjin obliges and soon he’s in his first class of the day, so antsy he couldn’t keep his body, nor his mind still. this would’ve been an issue if it weren’t a dance class. but even minho, the TA for his class and friend, notices something’s up and stops him after class.

  
“is everything okay?”, he asks. “you seem really spaced out and antsy today.”, hyunjin says nothing and just rolls up his sleeve and shows minho the messily written schedule on his forearm. minho squints at his arm for a moment and looks back up at hyunjin.

  
“what does your schedule have to do with anything?”, he asks, obviously confused. hyunjin rolls his eyes and takes a deep breathe.

  
“this isn’t my schedule, stupid!”, hyunjin nearly barks. minho looks back down at hyunjin’s arm, mouth making an o-shape in realization.

  
“oh,” minho says. “are you gonna find them?”, hyunjin shrugs. sure, he had been freaking out all morning, but he wasn’t sure how to go about finding out who exactly his soulmate is.

  
“i don’t know”, hyunjin starts, defeated. “they’re definitely in my drawing class, but i’m not sure i want to look at everyone’s arm like a weirdo.” minho gives him a small, sympathetic smile and pats his shoulder as hyunjin slumps and pouts. minho might not know hyunjin as well as seungmin, felix, or jisung, but it doesn’t take a genius to know how much the soulmate thing meant to hyunjin. it had been hyunjin’s biggest dream to meet his soulmate and have some sort of fairytale-esque ending ever since he heard of the concept when he was very young.

  
“well, i have to go.” minho says, checking his watch. “good luck with the soulmate thing, jinnie. but try not to think about it too much, okay?. fate has a funny way of working sometimes.” hyunjin offers a small smile as minho leaves, then heads toward his next class.

  
for the next few of hyunjin’s classes, hyunjin is basically vibrating with anticipation. as much as he would’ve loved to take minho’s advice and not think about it, that seemed physically impossible. but as he’s walking to the fine arts building for his drawing class, the anticipation and excitement mixes with anxiety. _'what if no one there is my soulmate?, what if my soulmate is mean? or hates me? or even worse, hates soulmates?'_ hyunjin stops walking and shakes the thoughts from his head, then takes a deep breath and walks into the building.


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all are about to be real mad at me, but this is abt to be slow burn slow burn
> 
> this is also not proof read at all good luck reading this lmao

jeongin is, surprisingly, on time to his drawing class. it turns out that the fine arts building isn’t too far from the dining hall he was in. he double checks the schedule on his arm to make sure he has the right room and goes in. the room consists of about 15 drawing desks and stools, laid out in a circle around the room, and a whiteboard at what would be the front of the room. most of the students are there, some mingling with each other. jeongin chooses a desk in the back corner of the room, by the large window. he sets his bag down on the floor against the wall behind him and sits down to wait for class to start. 

the stool at the desk to the right his moves, and jeongin startles. he looks up from his desk and sees a boy around his age who might have been the most beautiful boy jeongin had ever seen. the boy makes eye contact with jeongin and offers a small, tired smile, which jeongin politefully returns, ignoring the heat crawling up the back of his neck. 

“hi, i’m dongju!”, the boy politely introduced himself, putting his bag down next to jeongin’s. jeongin’s blush intensifies and he smiles at dongju.

“i’m jeongin, nice to meet you!”, jeongin replies. before their conversation could continue, the professor comes in and promptly starts the class. she hands out the syllabus and starts to go through attendance. about halfway through attendance, another boy sheepishly walks into the room. he’s also around jeongin’s age, and he’s tall with thick lips and black hair that’s a bit long in the back.  _ a mullet is a... choice _ jeongin thinks to himself, but the boy looks handsome regardless, so jeongin lets it go. he smiles politely at the professor who looks unimpressed and takes the seat directly across the large circle of desks from jeongin. the boy quickly scans the room, looking almost hopeful, then looks down at his desk like he’s lost in thought. 

the professor carries on with attendance, and jeongin finds out that the boys name is hwang hyunjin. jeongin can’t help but feel like he’s supposed to know hyunjin, the other boy seems very familiar. but jeongin lets it go when the professor calls his name for attendance, and then moves on to going over the syllabus. jeongin kind of zones out, deciding that since he has the information on paper already, it won’t hurt him. jeongin looks to his right and sees dongju already looking at him, with a small smile on his face. jeongin just about combusts on the spot, and smiles back before quickly looking back down at his paper, he hears dongju chuckle quietly and decides he’d like to hear that laugh again, soon. 

after the professor finishes going over the syllabus she has the class do a quick drawing exercise. they are to draw the palm of their hand without looking at the paper and without picking up their pencil. easy enough, jeongin thinks, and gets to work. 

it turns out that the exercise was in fact, not easy enough, and jeongin is left with some sort of disformed blob that doesn’t really look like anything and a pout on his lips. the professor is walking around the room looking at everyone’s progress. when she gets to dongju, she excitedly praises his work. jeongin curiously looks over at dongju’s paper and nearly gasps, he drew a freaking masterpiece! jeongin dejectedly looks back down at his drawing (if you could even call it that) and sighs. the professor gets to jeongin’s desk, looks down at his paper, gives him a simple ‘good effort’ and moves along. 

“i think it’s really good.”, jeongin suddenly hears from beside him and nearly falls out of his seat. he looks over and dongju is smiling at him. jeongin blushes and thanks him, then turns the page in his notebook to try the exercise again. the second try is admittedly better than the first, but still not as amazing as dongju’s. dongju looks at his drawing again and gives him a smile and praises him for his improvement, jeongin beams. since there was a bit of time left in the class, the boys were able to get to know each other a bit. he learns that dongju is a freshman like him, and is a fine arts major, which explains how he drew the masterpiece that was his hand. dongju is really charming, and jeongin has trouble keeping up with all his compliments and jokes. he swears he was smiling for at least fifteen minutes. 

eventually the professor dismisses the class and before they leave, dongju asks for his number and jeongin gladly gives it to him. they bid each other goodbye and dongju leaves. jeongin takes his time packing up his bag and leaves just a minute after. he and the tardy boy hyunjin are the last ones to leave, as hyunjin was speaking to the professor. he and the boy bump into each other on the way out the classroom, accidentally trying to go out the door at the same time. jeongin giggles and steps to the side, letting hyunjin go first. hyunjin bows his head, gives him a shy smile, and heads out the door. jeongin follows him out, and heads toward his dorm to chill out for the rest of the afternoon. but the whole time he can’t help but feel like hyunjin is oddly familiar, and he just can’t put his finger on it. 

 

————————-

 

hyunjin realizes he messed up the moment he walks into the classroom and notices that the professor is already going through attendance. the tips of his ears burn under the entire cless’ gaze as he sheepishly makes his way to the only free seat left. he was so in his head about the possibility of finding his soulmate that he didn’t even realize he was running so late. he scans around the room trying to see if his soulmate was stupid enough to wear short sleeves in winter. when no one sticks out to him, he just looks down at the syllabus left on his desk. the professor finishes attendance and starts to go through the syllabus. hyunjin decides he has nothing better to do than pay attention to what the professor is saying, because the only other thing to do was sit there and overthink about how he’s literally sitting in the same room as his soulmate and he has no idea who it is. 

after forcing himself to listen to the professor tell them the information that was already on the syllabus that they were being given, so it was hardly necessary to go through it, for way too long, the professor gives them a simple drawing exercise to do. hyunjin, not wanting to throw himself into an existential crisis, takes his time on the exercise and actually thinks it goes pretty well. the girl sitting next to him even compliments his drawing. the professor walks by and even compliments him as well, and hyunjin hopes he’s redeemed himself after her not-so-good first impression of him.

not too long after that, the professor dismisses the class, but hyunjin hangs back for a moment to apologize to the professor for being late because he’s a polite young man and his momma raises him that way. the professor kindly accepts his apology and hyunjin is on his way. on his way out, hyunjin bumps into a slightly shorter boy with brown wavy hair and big fox-like eyes. the boy, who he thinks is named jeongin if he remembers correctly from attendance, moves back and lets hyunjin go first. when hyunjin looks at him, he feels a sense of familiarity, but he doesn’t know why. but he moves on and politely bows and smiles at the boy before walking out of the classroom. 

hyunjin spends the rest of the walk back to his dorm wondering about jeongin. thinking maybe they’ve seen each other before, in the past few days before classes started, or maybe they went to the same high school but were in different years. regardless, seeing the boy was giving him severe deja vu. hyunjin glosses over the possibility of the boy being his soulmate, but doesn’t want to get his hopes up or freak out before knowing. 

the rest of hyunjin’s day is so busy he doesn’t get the chance to think about it anymore, or even rant to seungmin about. but later that night when he’s in bed about to go to sleep, the last thing he can see is jeongin’s sparkly, big eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if u couldn't tell they're supposed to look like they did during i am you bc that era was *chef's kiss*
> 
> also i love hyunjin's mullet i just added that in for the Drama.
> 
> also hyunjin's pov sections are garbge i might just stop doing them and sticking to jeongin's pov.


End file.
